By Oboh Linus, Lafia
The Nasarawa State Government has donated office space and working equipment to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to facilitate national identification number (NIN) registration across 8 Local Government Areas.
Dr Labaran Magaji, Secretary to the Nasarawa State Government, disclosed this while inspecting the office and the machines at the NIN Centre in Lafia Government Secretariat.
Magaji, while underscoring NIN acquisition, said virtually no official transaction could be done, whether by the government or the private sector without requesting NIN from citizens.
The SSG explained that, given the difficulty the citizens of the state encountered in accessing the service for NIN registration, Gov Abdullahi Sule has intervened by providing machines and other logistics to address the challenge.
Magaji, while commending the team of NIMC for being on the round and providing prompt response in ensuring that the people of the state get registered, called on the citizens of the state to visit NIMC registration centres in their respective LGAs for registration.
“The findings from my office show that between 7 and 8 LGAs don’t have NIN registration machines, so Nigerians have to resort to a private operator to register at a high cost.
“So guided by that, the Gov Sule made provision for logistics so that we wade in and solve the problem.
“As you know, he is not one person who will sit down in the office and assume that things are working, so I have to take a trip to inspect the logistics in Lafia LGA to ensure that they are fully operational and they are really working,” he said.
The SSG, while thanking the chairman of Lafia local government, Mr Mohammed Haliru-Arabo, for allocating an office space for the exercise, urged those who had yet acquire NIN to take advantage of the opportunity.
Zakariah Ishaku, NIMC, Nasarawa
State Coordinator, applauded Nasarawa State Government’s support to reactivate the NIN registration Centre in the Local Government Areas, particularly Lafia LGA, to enable citizens to access registration at no cost.
‘Without the NIN, life becomes so difficult for you; you will not be able to access the service you should have access freely, thanks to the visionary government, which has the interests of the people at heart.
“To be sincere with you, we have done data harmonisation, information database from the bank has been harmonised to NIN, database from NHIS has been harmonised, and so also other agencies.
“We are working toward harmonisation with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and by implication, a time is coming that if you don’t have NIN, you will not be able to vote,” he said.
Also speaking, Mr Mohammed Haliru-Arabo, expressed appreciation to Gov. Sule for his kind intervention toward addressing the NIN registration challenge in Lafia LGA.
The entire people of Lafia are happy with the kind gesture of the state government; they used to spend between two and three weeks to get a NIN.
“This is the time to increase our loyalty from 100 per cent to 200 per cent, our support, total loyalty is to the Gov Sule, as 2027 draws near Lafia LGA is waiting for what he will say,’ he said.